


An Inescapable Conclusion

by WotanAnubis



Category: Renowned Explorers: International Society
Genre: Almost everybody's gay, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which Anna goes to drown her sorrows and finds almost all of her friends drowning the exact same sorrow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I think the implications for Maria's Story were not thought through all the way.

Anna rarely ventured out of her laboratory. She was always eager to go out and explore the world's unfamiliar wonders, but her city of residence held little interest to her. Still, once in a while, the siren song of society managed to lure her away from her experiments.

Anna walked along London's cobbled streets, ignoring everybody around her. Her walk soon led her to one of the city's less respectable areas. It wasn't an entirely disreputable place, but it was the kind of place the higher classes wouldn't dream of going. At least, not if there was any chance any of their peers being around to recognise them.

Anna headed for a large, nondescript building in a street of large, nondescript buildings. The sign above the door said _The Kitten in the Rain_. It was Anna's favourite pub. It was also the only pub she ever went to, once every two or three months.

_The Kitten in the Rain_ was mostly empty at this time of day. It was the kind of place that only really came alive in the evenings. This suited Anna just fine. Just because she had a vague need for companionship didn't mean she wanted to have any people around.

The bartender - a cheerful, heavyset woman with more tattoos than bare skin - smiled at her as she walked up to the bar.

"Ah, Anna! Haven't seen you in a while. Lemonade?"

"No, thanks," Anna replied curtly. "I'll have a shandy."

The bartender raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. "Well, now. Celebrating or mourning?"

"None of your business."

"Ah. Mourning, then. Here you are."

Anna took her drink, glared at the bartender and turned away from the bar. She spotted a number of familiar faces sitting at a distant table underneath a dark and gloomy cloud. This was just the kind of company Anna was looking for.

The rest of the girls barely noticed Anna as she sat down at their table. They certainly didn't acknowledge her presence. Instead they just stared miserably at their drinks while talking to nobody in particular.

"It was the hair," Molly sighed. "Always had a thing for a redheads and hers is so... wild and pretty."

"It was the lips for me," said Bia. "They're so beguiling."

"More than that, I'm sure," Yvonne said. "Ah, but her skin. So flawless. So... without marks of any kind."

"And those legs," Cassandra said. "She just has to lift her skirt to seduce me into simply letting her have her way. Rivaleux wasn't too terribly pleased with that, but... well..."

"That rose of her never withers, have you noticed?" Kiwi said. "Just like her, really."

"Oh, she withers alright," Hatice muttered bitterly. "Did you hear her? 'She ended that adventure years ago'. Because _that's_ not an insulting stereotype or anything."

Anna just let the litany wash over her. Then she very carefully put her drink on the table. Maybe it was the alcohol, but... The corner of her lips twitched into a smile. A giggle escaped from her mouth. And then the floodgates burst and laughter spilled out of Anna. A torrent of mad mirth that flooded the entire pub. It wasn't just the happy laugh of a cheerful person, it was the maddening cackle of a hubristic scientist who's torn apart the veil of reality and witnessed the incomprehensible truth that lies beyond.

"You alright?" Yvonne asked.

Anna waved a hand dismissively while choking on her tears. She took a deep breath and regained as much of her icy composure as she could while her eyes were still red and her cheeks were blushing.

"Listen to us. To you," Anna said. "You're talking about Maria, right? All of you?"

"Well... yeah," said Molly. "So?"

"Well, you just have to laugh, haven't you?" Anna said. "Whether out of despair or absurdity."

"Do we?" said Hatice.

"Look at us. All of us gay ladies-"

"I'm bisexual," said Cassandra.

"All of us queer ladies," Anna corrected herself, "and we all, _every single one of us_ , at one point or another, fell in love with the **one** straight girl around. We each could've been getting together with each other, but no. Fate somehow decreed we all became interested in the only one we're not compatible with. A cruel joke." She smiled. "But a joke, all the same."

The girls around the table tried not meet each other's eyes.

"Not a very funny one, actually," Kiwi said.

"Certainly not worth that much laughter," Yvonne said.

"No," said Anna. "I suppose not."

"Hey, you know what would be funny?" said Molly, grinning.

\- - - - -

Chairman Pinkerton was faced with an enigma. This was not unusual. As Chairman of the Renowned Explorers International Society he was faced every day with all the mysteries of the world. And, of course, he had to manage the diverse personalities of the Society's.... eclectic range of explorers.

But this was truly perplexing. The proud frontage of the Society had always been host to a number of flags representing the nationalities of its proud members. Today, however, the flags of Russia, Samoa, the Ottoman Empire, Australia, Greece, Canada, and Egypt had all vanished and had been replaced with rainbow flags. Very colourful, very cheerful, but still rather inexplicable.

"Have you seen this?" Chairman Pinkerton asked Dolores when he spotted her walking up to the building.

"What? Oh, the flags. Terrible. Dreadful, even," Dolores replied.

"Dreadful? I don't think I would go that far," said Pinkerton.

"Oh, I would go that far," said Dolores. "They forgot to replace the Mexico one."

And with that, Dolores headed into the building. Chairman Pinkerton remained behind, perplexed. Then he shrugged.

Ah well.

Just another day for the Society.


End file.
